Dixie Witch
Let It Roll
Small Stone
This album, Dixie Witch’s fourth, with its gold chrome letters on crushed black leather, is the simplest, most uncomplicated, and appropriately textured statement the band could make concerning their return after a five year absence. As if anticipating the inevitable question, ‘Well, what are you going to do now?’ they’ve just gone and shrugged and said, ‘Let it roll, motherfucker!’ With all due respect to the Small Stone bands who’ve already released albums this year, and many condolences to the ones yet to come, this here is the Olympic pinnacle, and the trio of long-toothed Texan troublemakers have stormed Zeus’ Godly realm and confiscated his throne. Armed with an arsenal of lightning bolts and cloaked in the kind of invincibility you can only get from a mountain high, Trinidad Leal, Curt “CC” Christenson, and new guitarist Josh “JT” Todd Smith now seem to hold dominion over all things ROCK; their Southern stoner sound, once drenched in the earthly confines of mud and fuzz, has found a magical, heavenly edge. It’s still every bit the beast Smoke & Mirrors is, but they’ve elevated the power and melody to rocket-fueled levels (and left out the ballads), making Let It Roll as much a supreme n’ sizzling cock rock record as it is a boogie n’ blues truck stop tango drenched in AC/DC, Lynyrd Skynyrd, ZZ Top, and Alabama Thunderpussy influences. I suppose Let It Roll has the potential to piss off anyone not enamored with a polished production, but if deliciously dirty dynamics and majestic riffs are your bag, you’re in for one hell of a treat.
Listen to “Let It Roll” from Let It Roll!
Posted by Jeff on Aug 22 2011 in Reviews
Tags: AC/DC, Alabama Thunderpussy, arsenal, ballad, black, blues, boogie, chrome, cock rock, crushed, Curt "CC" Christenson, delicious, dirty, Dixie Witch, dynamics, fuzz, gold, heavenly, high, invincibile, Josh "JT" Todd Smith, leather, Let It Roll, letters, lightning bolts, Lynyrd Skynyrd, magical, Majestic, melody, mountain, mud, Olympic, pinnacle, polished, Power, riffs, rock n' roll, rocket fuel, sizzling, Small Stone, Smoke & Mirrors, southern, stoner, supreme, tango, Texas, throne, Trinidad Leal, trio, troublemakers, truck stop, Zeus, ZZ Top
The Might Could
The Might Could
Small Stone
Yes, Alabama Thunderpussy is dead, but you can still find plenty of angry, sauced Southern metal out there. Making the hunt that much easier, though, is former ATP guitarist Erik Larson, who heads a new group of rabble rousing good ol’ boys in The Might Could, proudly shoving the source right in your face like a freshly caught possum. As you’d expect, the majority of The Might Could carries with it the bourbon-fueled, junkyard clamor of chainsaw fights and shotgun blasts, but it also mixes in gracious nods to Skynyrd’s blue sky balladry (“When the Spirits Take Control”) and Pantera’s thug metal riffola (“I Don’t Even Like Pantera Anymore”), blues-infused steel n’ slide (“Let ‘Em Up Easy”), doom-laden mood mending (“The Widower” and “The Fall”), and electric, punk-fried action (“Mad Dog Blues”). A black and green tempest of heavy energy, this Might Could.
Listen to “Mad Dog Blues” from The Might Could!
Posted by Jeff on Jan 16 2011 in Reviews
Tags: action, Alabama Thunderpussy, angry, black, blues, bourbon, chainsaw, doom, electric, energy, Erik Larson, green, heavy, I Don't Even Like Pantera Anymore, junkyard, Let 'Em Up Easy, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Mad Dog Blues, Metal, Pantera, possum, Punk, rabble, riffola, sauced, shotgun, slide, Small Stone, southern, steel, tempest, The Fall, The Might Could, The Widower, When the Spirits Take Control
Night Horse
Perdition Hymns
Tee Pee
Even though they hail from the City of Angels, Night Horse carry themselves with that Americana swagger befitting East Coast brawlers, chucking big, dopey, boogie-fried riffs at you like ham-sized fists that leave deep, lasting bruises. Picking up where their 2008 debut, The Dark Won’t Hide You, left off, Perdition Hymns lays the Southern stoner rock on nice n’ thick, incorporating plenty of organ, slide, and 70s-infused boxcar blues to send you on a weed-eating nostalgia trip to Altamont and back. Sure, it’s got all the dusty charm of Skynyrd or the Allmans, and sounds like a nasty mix of Cracktorch and the ‘Crowes, but ultimately (and maybe it’s because of the way singer Sam James Velde howls at the blood red moon) the songs on Perdition Hymns come off as bastard inventions from an alternate universe where Danzig grows up a wayward cowboy and not Lucifer’s brawny spawn.
Listen to “Shake Your Blues” from Perdition Hymns!
Posted by Jeff on Aug 12 2010 in Reviews
Tags: '70s, Allman Brothers, Altamont, Americana, bastard, big, blood, blues, boogie-fried, brawler, bruises, cowboy, Cracktorch, Danzig, deep, dopey, Dusty, fists, Los Angeles, Lucifer, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Moon, Night Horse, organ, Perdition Hymns, riff, Sam James Velde, Shake Your Blues, slide, southern, stoner, swagger, Tee Pee, The Black Crowes, The Dark Won't Hide You, wayward, weed